Ballerina seized by Putin’s thugs for ‘raising £40 for Ukraine army’
AN American-Russian ballerina has been detained by Vladimir Putin’s secret security force for ‘high treason’ after allegedly raising £40 for the Ukrainian army.
Ksenia Karelina, 33, was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last month and could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The Los Angeles resident has been accused of fundraising for the Ukrainian military – a charge premised on a bank transfer of £41.10 from an American account to Ukrainian charity Razom.
A video posted in the city of Yekaterinburg by a Russian news agency showed Ms Karelina being led into a courtroom yesterday in handcuffs and with a hat covering her eyes.
She was originally arrested outside a cinema on charges related to
‘Provided assistance to a foreign state’
swearing offences. The dancer has since been accused of ‘providing financial assistance to a foreign state’ and repeatedly participating in public events in support of Ukraine while in the US. The FSB alleges that Razom is helping Ukrainians purchase ‘tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine’. The charity describes itself online as ‘contributing to the establishment of a secure, prosperous and democratic Ukraine’. Of the 63 people charged with treason in Russia since 2023, some 37 were found guilty. Ms Karelina, who is married to American Eugene Khavana and became a US citizen in 2021, was detained after returning to Russia to visit her parents. According to social media accounts, she attended Ural Federal University and studied ballet at the S. P. Diaghilev school in Yekaterinburg before emigrating to the US.
Her profile on Russian social media site VK says she also studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She is now a manager at Ciel Spa at Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, where she has worked since 2019.
Yekaterinburg, where Ms Karelina grew up, is the same city where Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested on spying charges nearly a year ago.
On the day that Ms Karelina was arrested, Mr Gershkovich appeared in a Moscow court, where his pretrial detention was extended.
The journalist, 32, will now remain imprisoned in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison until March 30. He was first held while on assignment before being charged a month later with ‘espionage in the interests of his country’ – with him also facing a 20-year maximum term.
Mr Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal reject the charges with the US accusing Russia of holding him for political reasons.
Putin hinted in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson this month at a deal.
The president said: ‘I do not rule out the person you refer to, Mr Gershkovich, may return to his motherland. We want the US special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing.’
Reports suggest Putin is considering exchanging the journalist for Vadim Krasikov, the assassin responsible for shooting Chechen rebel Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019.